Jack Stone
- Jack Stone, 60, moved to Portugal last year, mainly because of the cost of retirement in the US.Stone thought moving would help cut down on large US expenses: healthcare and transportation.She doesn't plan to move back to the US and is hoping to sell her Maryland home.
Jack Stone, 60, sold her belongings and moved from Maryland to Portugal with her cat Olive last year — with no plans to return.
It might not be her last relocation, but the US isn't in her future either because of retirement concerns.
Stone was worried about what aging would look like in the US. She estimated she would need at least $2 million to comfortably live as a retiree in her Maryland home with healthcare and aging care.
"I realized that even if I had Social Security, I would not be able to survive in the United States," Stone told Business Insider. "The math was not there."
After visiting Portugal in 2023 and starting the visa process shortly after, she moved abroad this past August. Stone said she wanted to make the change while she was still relatively young. She moved to Portugal on a long-stay visa and has a US remote job as a clinical analyst in a tech services company. While she's still with the same employer and earns six figures a year, she said she's in a contractor role now, so she doesn't have paid time off or a 401(k) through her employer. She has also started a coaching business to help people plan a move abroad.
Stone, who now has her residence permit, said that she doesn't have a lot of retirement savings because she started saving up in her 50s. She said it wouldn't have mattered if she had saved earlier because she dropped out of high school and didn't get her first "real paycheck" until late in her life.
"I went back to school as a 38-year-old with a GED and a third-grade math level," Stone said. "I graduated at 43, and that was the first time I ever made more than $7 an hour."
There isn't a perfect number for retirement savings because some people may work longer, live longer, move in with family, or have varying levels of lifestyle and healthcare needs. An AARP article said people need about 80% of their pre-retirement income to keep up their lifestyle, and Northwestern Mutual has found year after year, US adults think they will need over $1 million to retire comfortably. Fidelity Investments found the average 401(k) balance for 60- to 64-year-olds was $246,500.
"I wish that our country was keeping its promise to its people and not favoring the billionaires," Stone said, adding, "I pulled myself up from the bootstraps, and I'm still woefully short. And 40 years ago, that's not what it would've been."
Moving to Portugal reduced Stone's medical and transportation costs
Stone said in a TikTok video that she decided to move abroad because she thought that if she removed transportation and healthcare expenses, she would have a better chance of living comfortably as she ages.
"And it's true. I have to tell you that removing those two things from the equation has made a huge difference," Stone said in the video.
Stone told BI she's saving more money than when she was in the US. She sold her car because she doesn't "want a car lifestyle." She pays for a metro pass of 40 euros a month. In the TikTok video, she said she wanted to make sure she was living somewhere with good transportation as she ages, so she doesn't "become a shut-in."
While electricity costs are similar, she's spending less on prescriptions, groceries, internet, and her phone. She pays 89 euros a month for private health insurance with no deductible to reach or out-of-pocket costs. She said she's renting her Maryland home, which she has had for just over a handful of years and bought on a Veterans Affairs loan, but is hoping to sell it.
She said there is a standard Value Added Tax of 23% in Portugal. "Even with that, my grocery bill is 30% less than what it was," Stone said, adding that the rate is already folded into the price shown to consumers, so she doesn't really think about it as she shops.
Stone does miss some things about the US, but isn't looking back
It's not the first time Stone has been outside the US. Stone, who used to be in the military, lived overseas after 9/11. She also lived in different US states.
"So I'm very comfortable with change," Stone said. With that comfort, she found the assimilation to Portugal easy, but she does miss snowy winters in the US and thinks the US has so much beauty. If she ended up leaving Portugal, she thinks it would be to move somewhere besides the US.
"I lived a very full, lucky life, and I got to play in all of the most amazing states in the mountains and everywhere there," she said. "I do sometimes pine away just for that, which was my life as a child and growing up."
But Stone is happy with her move. She enjoys traveling around Portugal and balances her work, including taking coaching calls for her new business, with social activities. "I love just walking out my door, getting on the metro, crossing the river, and going to meet a group for a local meetup," Stone said.
In her TikTok video, Stone wanted to send a message to other Americans who are worried they won't have enough for retirement. "Most of us played the game and followed all the rules, and we're coming up short," she said, adding, "It's never too late. You have options, you're not alone, and you didn't do anything wrong."
She recommends people interested in trying a new country to talk to their employer about whether that's feasible, like she did. She added that people don't have to take everything they own to their new home.
Stone also suggests Americans who are considering a move abroad visit beforehand, especially if they haven't traveled out of the country before, and not to expect the country to be like the US.
"The whole point of moving somewhere else is to experience their way of living," Stone said.
